Results for "Toronto"

Tony Quarrington

Born: May 17, 1948

Emerging from the folk and rock scenes of the 60's and 70's, I have been specializing in jazz since 1985. I am an active musician and producer in Toronto, Canada.I produced the Juno-winning roots album, HEARTSTRINGS, for Willie P. Bennett in 1998. My jazz albums as a leader are ONE BRIGHT MORNING [Cordova Bay Records, 1999] with Kirk MacDonald,Bernie Senensky, et al, DEEP RIVER [Cordova Bay Records, 2000] with Pat LaBarbera,Doug Riley, Neil Swainson, and Greg Pilo] - and GROUP OF SEVEN SUITE [CBC Jazz Records, 2002] with Jane Bunnett, Don Thompson, Jeff Bird,Jane Siberry, and others. In addition, my retro trio Swing Street [Ron Davis, Cheung Liu] has released the independent SWING STREET [2003], and my most recent effort is a collaboration with B-3 organist Denis Keldie, called HAMMOND GRITS [Independent, 2003].

Michael Danso

Born: August 17

Scottish-born and Toronto-based, I come from a Show Business family. My mother, PINKIE MACKENZIE, sang with all the top Big Bands when they toured Great Britain, and I first sang onstage with her at the age of 5, with The BERTIE KING BAND. By age 9, I was touring with my own group of girls, under the name WEE MAXIE AND HIS LASSIES. At 10, I was spotted by ELLA FITZGERALD, who was performing across the street and wanted to know which local group was drawing large line-ups. Fitzgerald was impressed and offered to take me to the U.S. his grandmother vetoed the idea. I finally reached North America

Mark Eisenman

Born: June 1, 1955

I'm a jazz pianist in Toronto who's originally from NYC. My latest Cd is a Quintet featuring Mark Eisenman (piano) Pat Labarbera (saxophones) John Macleod (trumpet & flugelhorn) Steve Wallace (bass) John Sumner (drums) playing my original compositions. I've been very active in the Toronto scene. I do a lot of accompanying gigs, playing in many bands. My reputation as a sensitive accompanist for vocalists seems to precede me. I also teach privately, and at York University. Please visit my web site for audio samples of my playing. A few years ago I recorded with Jazz Drummer Jimmy Cobb, when he was at the IAJE in Toronto. You can get the CD here http://www.cornerstonerecordsinc.com/pages/cat125.html

Brenda Carol

Born: March 10

A major jazz singer and educator based in Toronto, Brenda Carol has built an important career that has touched the ears and hearts of a countless number of listeners and young singers. Her open-minded approach has found her often interpreting songs drawn from the rock, pop and folk music worlds, transforming them through improvisations and arrangements into jazz without losing their essence, while also performing her own highly personal versions of jazz standards. Born in Sudbury (a small town in Ontario), she grew up in nearby Brantford, which is in a very rural area. “I had a lot of time to listen,” she remembers

Ali Berkok

Born: December 3, 1978

Ali Berkok is a Toronto-based pianist and composer best known for his 2012 chamber score to Battleship Potemkin, and as a founding member of the trio Aurochs, along with Pete Johnston (bass) and Jake Oelrichs (drums). Aurochs's layered, long-form improvisationals can be witnessed every second Tuesday of the month at the Tranzac, and their debut album "Rational Animals" is available now on iTunes and Bandcamp. Ali's interest in jazz was ignited as a teenager when he discovered he could disobey the sheet music that he had been trained to follow with accuracy since the age of 8

Lina Allemano

Born: October 20

LINA ALLEMANO is a Canadian trumpeter, improviser, prolific composer, and bandleader with an active international career, performing and recording cutting-edge contemporary music primarily in experimental, conceptual, improvised and jazz settings, but also working in a wide array of other genres. Born and raised in Edmonton Alberta, Allemano moved to Toronto in 1993. She is educated in both classical and jazz trumpet and specializes in extended technique on her instrument. Allemano now splits her time between the music scenes in TORONTO and BERLIN, and she runs her own internationally-acclaimed record label LUMO RECORDS.

George Lake BIG Band

Active since: March 1, 1995

With lots of brass, a little sass, and plenty of pizzazz, the award-winning George Lake BIG Band would be happy to swing for you sometime soon. Their finely tuned repertoire draws on the timeless appeal of the greats; Glenn Miller, Duke Ellington, Artie Shaw and arrangements by modern swing artists like The Cherry Poppin’ Daddies and The Brian Setzer Orchestra. This distinctive blend has given the George Lake Big Band a unique style that continues to win fans from every generation. Simply put, they can really swing!

2019: The Year in Jazz

by Ken Franckling
January 2, 2020

The year 2019 was robust in many ways. International Jazz Day brought its biggest stage to Australia. An important but long-shuttered jazz mecca was revived in a coast-to-coast move. ECM Records celebrated a golden year. The music and its makers figured prominently on the big screen. The National Endowment for the Arts welcomed four new NEA ...

Eric West

Eric West is a Canadian Jazz musician based out of Toronto. He is active as a sideman as well as leader of his own band The Eric West Group, which released their debut recording The Eric West Group EP (Dec 2019)

Sarah Jerrom

Born: November 8, 1979

Sarah Jerrom is a JUNO-nominated Canadian vocalist, pianist, composer and arranger specializing in jazz and creative music, taking her inspiration from lyric-driven melodies, genre-defying instrumentation and experimental soundscapes. As a bandleader, Sarah has released four critically-acclaimed albums to date: Magpie, a double album featuring her original eighty-six-minute suite for extended jazz orchestra (2024, TPR Records),  Dream Logic (2021, TPR Records), which showcases a collection of original songs recorded by her contemporary jazz quartet of the same name, The Yeats Project (2017), featuring W.B. Yeats’s poetry set to original music and orchestrated for a nine-piece chamber jazz ensemble, and Illuminations (2007), which encompasses original compositions, jazz-inspired arrangements of contemporary songs and traditional jazz standards.